Chain marketers build brand awareness via the Internet

Nation's Restaurant News, Dec 23, 1996 by Theresa Howard

Whether surfed, browsed, scanned, cruised or merely read by technophiles, the Internet is providing chain marketers with a whole new medium, and operators are riding the wave.

But just how they are accomplishing that is another story. With virtually no barrier to entry, a number of operators are hitting the 'Net with interesting, interactive sites but many say the judge and jury are still out on the medium's effectiveness as a marketing tool. Nevertheless, as the industry tries to find ways to quantify the impact of advertising on the 'Net, marketers are discovering that a mere presence on the World Wide Web helps create brand awareness. And others are going beyond awareness and taking advantage of their newfound cyber ways by offering sweepstakes, couponing, new-product news and promotions on the 'Net.

"It is such a new and exciting medium," said Nancy Schneid, vice president of marketing at Outback Steakhouse. "It's where television was in the 1940s."

"While Outback has not set up its own permanent site, it worked with Warfield Media Co. to develop the Outback Bowl Site as part of the company's sponsorship of the New Year's day college football bowl game, which pit Michigan against Alabama.

The site combines informational history, sweepstakes and trivia and features elements of a complementary promotion that ties in the company with commentator John Madden. Established last summer, the Outback John Madden Cruiser is an Outback-branded, fully loaded bus that serves as Madden's travel vehicle of choice throughout the football season because he is averse to flying. The Cruiser maintained a noteworthy presence during Saturday college football games as well as during the Fox-televised NFL games.

To promote the event, the Web site was created to drive interest in the game and to provide visitors, through a "Ticket to Ride" contest, with a chance to win a trip to The Outback Bowl or a VIP ride to the NFC Conference championship game in the Outback Cruiser.

Site visitors can play an electronic trivia quiz and win game tickets through "Tickets Down Under." or enter the "Ticket to Ride" contest through online entry form and link to Ticketmaster for game tickets. The site was promoted through a print campaign in USA Today.

Although Outback has not set a launch date for a permanent site, it is something the chain is pursuing diligently. "As a casual-dining operation, we need to find our place on the Internet" Schneid said. "How do you do that in line with the goals and objectives of marketing? That is something we are spending a lot of time looking into."

McDonald's, meanwhile, has integrated its current "101 Dalmatians" promotion into its Web site with merchandising icons for its line of Dalmatian accessories as well as "101 Dalmatians" memory game. The McDonald's site was launched last year and provides the company with a promotional forum for newproduct news as well as entertainment tie-ins and sports sponsorship news about NASCAR and the NBA.

Other notable industry sites include Domino's Pizza, Papa John's Pizza, Subway, Baskin-Robbins, T.G.I. Friday's and Starbucks Coffee.

"We thought it would be very important to create a Web site now rather than later," said Judy Karlin, manager of promotions at Baskin-Robbins. Although it is still in its infancy, we thought it would be important to try to be innovative which is what we are trying to do with the brand itself. We see it as a promotional and advertising tool as well as a means of providing great customer service."

Because Baskin mainly is franchised, it. is trying to convince franchisees to establish a presence on the 'Net so that customers can reach stores directly through uplinks based on the area code or zip code entered on the corporate site.

Karlin said the company plan's to establish templates so that individual store operators can electronically tour their own store events, promotions and special products and eventually establish cake-ordering systems directly from 'Net users to stores.

One ongoing cake promotion Baskin established is the E-cake, an electronic "birthday cake" that can be sent by any user to another user via E-mail. The cake is a cyberspace concoction, chosen by the sending user, that can be transmitted right away or ordered in advance for the birthday boy or girl on their special day.

"That is one of our brand initiatives that will be expanded over the next year as we get more into electronic consumer contests," Karlin said. Currently, Baskin promotes the site through the message "Check out the fun" at http://www.baskinrobbins.com, which is printed on advertising including free-standing inserts and in-store merchandising. Soon all packaging will list the address to direct visitors to the site.

Karlin said 1997 marks the inclusion of Web-site activities and promotions in the chain's marketing budget."We haven't even touched 5 percent of the potential of what we can do on the Internet," Karlin said. that.

The 'Net's potential is something Subway is evaluating. In April the company launched its site but has not yet decided how and where to develop it. "This was more of a prototype to get us off the ground," said Illya Berecz, executive assistant of the Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust. Nonetheless, the site receives about, 3,000 hits weekly and features an interactive sandwich-building game that draws more than 75 percent of the site's visitors. Berecz said the company plans to make upgrades to the site next year but is still in the process of devising those upgrades. "It is essential that we keep it fresh and maintain a level of interest."